We all know that feeling. That
pit we get in our stomach when we throw away the leftovers that went bad in
the back of the fridge. Now we are facing the decision to put 200 lbs.
of wood, fabric and other materials on our front lawn to add to our
ever-growing landfills.

Low density foam, looks nice at first,
but breaks down after little use

Naturally, we do not want to be wasteful.
But we may have heard that reupholstering can be expensive. We think
we might be able to save some money by going to the nearest mass-producing
furniture store and just buying new. What can justify reupholstering?
Here’s the answer:

Most furniture built even as recently as 10 years ago was built at a time
when there was a higher standard for furniture construction. Even
finer furniture manufacturers of late have had to lower their standards to
keep up competition with the cut-throat, corner-cutting furniture
manufacturers. What’s going on underneath the
upholstery of newer furniture that makes it so much more inferior?

In
order to offer the consumer furniture at dramatically low prices, costs are
being cut.
Woods previously unsuitable for furniture frames are now being used.
These frames are often shoddily “thrown” together as quickly as possible
with staple guns and fast-drying epoxy.

The old standard of using meticulously dowelled joints and waiting for wood
glue to dry during several re-clamping processes has been eliminated by many
manufacturers.

Old-fashioned
coil springs and heavy-duty sinuous (no-sag) springs are being replaced with
a lighter gauge of sinuous springs …and less of them per seat.

Good, high-density foam has gone up in price drastically over the past
couple of years. So, many furniture manufacturers use a low-density
foam that is suitable for its showroom appearance, but may break down on the
consumer after only a few months of use.

When it comes to padding, natural fibers like cotton or jute are usually a
better quality than synthetic materials. The styrofoam edge-roll
pictured here is cheaper than the jute kind, but most manufacturers today
suppose you will never see it. Also, notice it has been quickly
attached with hog-rings. We sew ours on by hand.

Coil springs are generally known as the highest-quality spring. Part
of the reason is because they are to be tied with jute twine - 8 knots per
spring. It appears the manufacturer that put this settee together was in a
bit of a rush...

Of course, we can't just let these kinds of things go when we come across
them. We fixed this piece up, literally, "better than new."